Serenity
by TheMastress
Summary: Daniel and Betty are in bed. Daniel? Well, he's troubled. BettyDaniel COMPLETE


Title: Snapshot #3: Serenity from What I Want to Be: The Betty/Daniel Series

Author: TheMastress, though I also go by Alli

Rating: PG-13 or T, although frankly I'm not really sure why

Summary: Betty and Daniel are in bed. Daniel? Well, he's troubled.

Disclaimer: Betty and Daniel? Not mine.

AN: This series starts with _Disappointment _which was followed by _Small Things. _This is the third installment in the series, the very idea of which makes neuriel a very happy girl, I think. After all, she _is _the one who pushed me ever so cleverly. This series won't move in a completely linear fashion. While the first two basically followed one another, this one jumps ahead a ways. Please let me know what you think, good or bad.

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Daniel liked to watch Betty sleep. He couldn't seem to help himself.

It wasn't his favorite view of Betty, since he loved her best awake and laughing, but it was at the very least top five. Daniel could tell Betty she was beautiful and sexy and amazing and she couldn't say he was wrong. She couldn't deny him his heartfelt truths from dreamland.

Daniel loved these moments- alone with the woman he loved. If his childhood had taught him anything, it was that love was scarce. So he held on to Betty tightly, inaudibly daring someone, _anyone_, to take her away from him.

He knew his fear was an irrational one; knew it in the deepest part of his being. Betty wasn't the type to fall out of love; not the type to blindly love. He knew he had her whole heart, if only because she had said so more than a few times.

And Betty's word? Nothing short of gold.

When it came to Betty, Daniel was afraid of so many things. Afraid he would hurt her. Afraid he would disappoint her. Afraid he couldn't be even half of what she needed.

But mostly he was afraid that one day she wouldn't be there anymore, and his anchor to the world would be gone.

Betty stirred in her sleep, shifting her body toward Daniel and moaning softly as she snuggled her head down into the crook of his left arm. His name rode from her lips on the wave of a whisper and he sighed softly, unable to keep the smile from his face. Awake or asleep, Betty had an effect on him like no other.

Daniel lightly tangled the fingers and palm of his left hand in Betty's deep brown hair, gently fingering the individual strands. The tips of his fingers traced graceful ghostly circles on her scalp as his right arm tightened around her waist.

"You're brooding." Her voice was soft but unmistakably clear and Daniel found himself wondering how long she'd been awake. She tilted her face up toward his but did not open her eyes.

"I swear you can read minds sometimes."

"Just yours." Her eyes were open now and fixed firmly on Daniel's, gently asking him to let her in. He kept eye contact but said nothing and Betty shifted slightly, fingering the bottom edge of Daniel's black tank top. After a moment she lifted the edge of the shirt and brought her left hand up underneath, her fingers lightly dancing across his bare skin until her hand came to rest on the skin above his heart. As she splayed her fingers out, Daniel closed his eyes and sighed.

After a moment he moved his arm from around Betty's waist and brought it up under his shirt, resting his hand on top of hers. He opened his eyes and moved his left hand from Betty's hair to her neck, slowly massaging the tendons there. Betty leaned forward and brought her lips to Daniel's forehead, resting them there for a moment before leaving a light kiss.

It was an unspoken sign from Betty.

_You trust me with your heart; please trust me with what's troubling you._

And like so many other things, Daniel could not deny her.

He found comfort and strength in the weight of her hand on his chest and the warmth of her body lying next to him. It was a comfort, he knew, he was more than lucky to be experiencing. How a man like him had ever come to deserve a woman such as her, he would never know.

"Even asleep you knew I was brooding."

Betty didn't answer, but Daniel wasn't bothered by that. The answer was implied. Daniel, while normally affectionate, grew ten times more so when troubled. The light touches of his fingers on her arm as she passed him in the hallway at work became a palm in the space between her shoulder blades or a hand that lingered on a knee. These touches were common outside of work but Betty and Daniel had an understanding when it came to the office. And Daniel had been the one to initiate it.

While Daniel would have been more than happy to keep his hands on Betty all the time, he wanted no less than for those around them to take her and her career seriously. He didn't want anyone claiming she hadn't earned every last bit of what she got. After all, it wasn't her fault her boss had fallen madly in love with her.

Daniel sighed, a sound that seemed a scream in an otherwise silent room. He could have danced around the issue, but Betty was looking at him in that sweet way she did with those understanding eyes of hers and Daniel found he didn't _want _to delay the comfort she was about to bring.

"I'm scared. One day…one day…you'll be…gone." He spoke slowly, his last word a whisper and his eyes never wavering from hers. But there it was: his soul bared once again to its only keeper.

"Alex. You were thinking of Alex."

"I never really _knew_ my brother, Betty. And he died. He died and I never knew him."

And Betty understood. He knew she would.

He was counting on it.

How else was he supposed to solve his problems?

"I'm going to die one day, Daniel." Daniel wanted to move his eyes away from Betty's but resisted the urge. Betty had a way of stating the truth directly and then slowly softening the blow.

_The Truth? Check._

Betty touched her forehead to Daniel's. "My mother had a saying she loved." Daniel raised his eyebrows in question.

"Don't borrow trouble."

The corners of Daniel's mouth raised the slightest bit and he nodded. Here came the softening. _Thank god for this woman._

Betty's hand pushed down lightly on Daniel's chest and Daniel's hand followed suit, his fingers filling the spaces between her fingers. "I love you Daniel. So much. And one day…one day…I'm going to die. But that day, Daniel? Not today." Daniel's smile grew wider and his right hand pushed her left tighter into his chest, his left hand moving to stroke her hair.

"No, today we have this bed and these hands and this moment. I never knew someone could love me as much as you do. I am so lucky to have that. So if tonight is my last night with you, I can't regret this. I can't regret that. I could never regret you."

Daniel grazed the knuckles of his left hand along Betty's cheek reverently. "I don't deserve you, Betty. I'll never deserve you. But I do love you."

The two lovers/best friends/confidants lay in the warmth of one another as the early morning Thanksgiving snow fell slowly and silently, its touch giving New York City an almost serene air. The sun would not rise for another few hours or so, and until then the pair would lose themselves in one another, the grace of love surrounding them.

Betty finally drifted off to slumber, her eyes shutting against the early morning light. Daniel watched her sleep, adoration oozing from his very pores until his own eyelids grew heavier and he finally succumbed, one last thought echoing in his mind.

_I repeat. Thank god for this woman._


End file.
